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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 602.8 km/sec
density: 1.0 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: B2
2145 UT Oct24
24-hr: B4
1200 UT Oct24
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT
Daily Sun: 24 Oct 10
Sunspot group 1117 continues to increase in spot count and magnetic complexity. No big flares yet, however. Credit: SOHO/MDI. 2-day movie: 8 MB mpg
Sunspot number: 43
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 23 Oct 2010

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 45 days (15%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 813 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days

Updated 23 Oct 2010


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 84 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 23 Oct 2010

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 4 unsettled
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 4.5 nT
Bz: 0.7 nT south
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 2345 UT
Coronal Holes: 24 Oct 10
A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Oct. 25th or 26th. Credit: SDO/AIA.
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2010 Oct 24 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
CLASS X
01 %
01 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2010 Oct 24 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
30 %
20 %
MINOR
05 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
35 %
30 %
MINOR
10 %
10 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
 
Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010
What's up in space
 

ON SALE NOW: The David H. Levy Comet Hunter -- offering the clearest views of Comet Hartley 2.

 

SEVERE STORM WARNING CANCELLED: NOAA forecasters have downgraded the chance of a severe geomagnetic storm on Oct. 25th to only 1%. Nevertheless, high-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as a solar wind stream continues to buffet Earth's magnetic field.

SPACE STATION FLYBYS: For the next week, the International Space Station (ISS) will be performing a series of bright evening flybys over North America and Europe. The station is very easy to see if you know when to look. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for local flyby times or you can turn your cell phone into a field-tested ISS-tracker.

On Oct 21st, amateur astronomer Béla Vingler of Győrújfalu, Hungary, caught the space station flying directly in front of the Moon:


Photo details: 12-inch reflecting telescope, Canon 400D, ISO 800, 1/3200 exp.

The station's winged outline was backlit by the bright debris fields of Crater Tycho as the spacecraft raced across the lunar disk, completing the transit in only a split-second. Because lunar transits happen so fast, careful planning is required to photograph them. The place to start is Calsky.com, which provides precise predictions of ISS transits for locations around the world.

MOON RINGS: It's not uncommon to see one ring around the Moon. But two? On Oct. 23rd, Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czech republic, photographed a rare pair:

The outer 22o circumscribed halo is caused by moonlight shining through six-sided pencil-shaped ice crystals in the air. This is a familiar sight to backyard sky watchers. Less familiar is the 9o inner ring. It is caused by ice crystals with a strange pyramidal shape. The 9o ring is the innermost of many possible "odd-radius" halos caused by pyramidal ice crystals. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley notes that "pyramidal crystals [might not be as] rare as previously thought" and he urges sky watchers to "search carefully for their halos whenever the skies look favourable."

more images: from Denis Joye of Boulogne, France;


October 2010 Aurora Gallery
[previous Octobers: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001]

  Near Earth Asteroids
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.
On October 24, 2010 there were 1155 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Mag.
Size
2010 TQ19
Oct 8
9.6 LD
18
37 m
2010 TS19
Oct 10
3.7 LD
18
31 m
2010 TD54
Oct 12
0.1 LD
14
7 m
2010 TB54
Oct 13
6.1 LD
20
19 m
1999 VO6
Oct 14
34.3 LD
16
1.8 km
2010 TK
Oct 16
4.5 LD
18
37 m
1998 TU3
Oct 17
69.1 LD
13
5.2 km
2010 TG19
Oct 22
1.1 LD
15
70 m
1998 MQ
Oct 23
77.7 LD
15
1.9 km
2007 RU17
Oct 29
39.2 LD
15
1.1 km
2003 UV11
Oct 30
5 LD
12
595 m
3838 Epona
Nov 7
76.8 LD
14
3.4 km
2005 QY151
Nov 16
77.7 LD
17
1.3 km
2008 KT
Nov 23
5.6 LD
21
10 m
2002 EZ16
Nov 30
73.9 LD
16
1.0 km
2000 JH5
Dec 7
47 LD
-
1.5 km
2010 JL33
Dec 9
16.6 LD
13
1.3 km
2008 EA32
Jan 7
76.5 LD
-
2.1 km
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
  Essential web links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
Science Central
   
  more links...
 
 
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